Notebook construction



March 12, 1940. v s, sc D 2,193,348

NOEBOOK CONSTRUCTION Filed May 8, 1939 ATTOR EYS Patented Mar. 12, 1940 UNITED STATES NOTEBOOK CONSTRUCTION Frank Stanley Schadc, Holyoke, Mass., assignor to National Blank Book Company, Holyoke, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application May 8, 1939, Serial No. 272,349

6 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved book and particularly to a combination of structure by which two book covers and connecting back portion may be bound at the back portion with a removable filler or pack of sheets. It is particularly useful as a small personal notebook for the pocket.

The prior books of this general sort are wellknown so that anyone in the art will see the advantages in the structural combination of my invention from my following detailed disclosure of a preferred form. y

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a notebook constructed according to my invention with the cover opened and the notebook ready for use;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary end elevation of the notebook in closed position and showing certain features of construction;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2 but with the notebook filler and its coiled binder wire removed; and

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but with the notebook filler and its coiled binder wire inserted.

The notebook combination is shown assembled and open in Fig. 1 and closed in Fig. 2. In the latter, the back portion is B and the covers are 9 and Ill. These parts may be and preferably are made from a single strip of thin flexible material, as leather. Midway of the back portion and on opposite edges, I prefer to provide small slits M. They are best seen in Figs. 3 and 4.

The pack of notebook sheets, generally called a filler, is 5. This pack has a coiled binding element 6 threaded through openings at the binding margin of the sheets. There are many well-known forms of such binding elements per se, and I do not desire to limit the present invention to any particular species of such element in my combination. I have shown the well-known helically coiled wire for this purpose; but a wire or other stiff flexible material might be coiled into other forms than helical coils and such type would serve my purpose, as will appear. Such a pack of bound filler sheets is' so well-known that no further description of it is necessary.

The bound pack 5 is fastened to the back portion B by a hasp 8. It is this element in its relation with the others that gives the structural combination the desired function.

While variations may be made, the hasp 8 in its preferred form is best seen in Fig. 3. It consists in one piece of still! wire, bent at the center into an eye l3, having two straight portions 8', two return bends II and I2, and two short portions i9.

The ends of the latter preferably have slight outward bends, as shown.

The hasp 8 is assembled on the back portion B by pushing eye I3 through a small opening II, the edges of which are preferably spaced closely I enough to crowd over the eye and then underlie the eye somewhat as a snap button. The two edges of back portion B are slipped into the oppo-, sitely arranged hook portions l9 at the ends of the hasp. Then the hasp has a grid at the back 10 portion as seen in Fig. 3 and forms a centrally arranged back bone for the back portion, as seen in Fig. 2. This hasp will thus, in the form shown, serve as a narrow line of stifiening material from which line a single sheet of flexible material like thin leather will start to bend accurately so as to form the opposite curves of the back portion, from which the covers are hung.

It will be seen from Figs. 1 and 2 that while the back portion is curved and the covers strictly considered start from the opposite ends of the back portion, the covers will always tend to turn from a single hinge line located exactly midway of the curved back portion. Thus, the two covers have but one hinge line and that one located and supported by the stiff wire hasp, as a back bone. This arrangement results in a binding for a low cost book that will retain its original neat appearance for a long time.

The whole structure, as described, is flexible. To insert a filler pack 5 into this flexible binder, the portions iii of the hasp 8 are hooked into the ends of the coiled wire 6 of the pack. The pack 5 is shifted to register centrally of the covers and then the eye I3 is buttoned into two adjacent coils 20, preferably so as to have these coils tighten sidewise against eye I3, thus serving as in Fig.

4 to position the parts 5 within the covers and prevent any lateral shifting of the coils. In this position the hasp has a sufflcient grip on both the so back portion connecting the covers and on the binder coils of the pack 5 with the result of clamping all parts together along the one hinge line mentioned above.

The improved book in its preferred form has .48 now been fully disclosed. I claim as my invention:

1. A book of the class described comprising, a single sheet of flexible material to form two covers and connected back portion, a spring wire hasp extending across the back portion from side to side serving to predetermine one hinge line for bending the flexible material, the main portions of said hasp lying along the outside face of the flexible material, and provided at opposite ends Bl with oppositely disposed hooks lying along, the inside face of said material, and a small central button portion extending through the material from back to front. all for the p rp s described.

'2. A notebook construction consisting of a pack of notebook sheets bound along one edge by means of a coiled wire binding threaded through spaced binding holes in said sheets, a cover member to the inside surface of which said pack is removably fastened, and means for removably fastening said pack to said cover member, said means consisting of a wire hasp extending across the outside surface of said cover member along the fastening axis with its end portions extending through the cover to engage the coils of the binding wire and having integral positioning means formed between said end positions with said means extending through an opening in said cover to engage coils of the binding wire for the purpose described.

3. A notebook construction consisting of a pack of notebook sheets bound along one edge by means of a coiled wire binding threaded through spaced binding holes in said sheets, a cover member to the inside surface of which said pack is removably fastened and means for removably fastening said pack to said cover, said means consisting of a wire hasp extending across the outside surface of said cover member along the fastening axis with its end portions extending through said cover and having a rebent portion adapted to lie within the convolutions of said wire binding, said hasp having in addition, integral positioning means intermediate its end portions, which means extend through an opening in said cover and engage the coils of said binding wire for the purpose described.

4. The stucture of claim 3 with said intermediate positioning means consisting of a loop formed in said wire hasp in wedged relation between adjacent coils of said binding wire.

5. A notebook construction consisting of a one piece cover member. a pack of paper sheets bound together by a coiled wire threaded through binding holes adjacent one edge of said sheets, and means for removably holding said pack to said cover, said means having hook-shaped ends to lie within the end convolutions of said coiled wire and hold it against the cover, and means intermediate said hook-shaped ends adapted to releasably engage adjacent coils of said binding wire and hold said binding wire both against said cover and in a fixed lateral position in relation to said cover for the purpose described.

6. A notebook construction consisting of a single piece of flexible material to form two cover portions and a connected back portion, a single piece wire hasp extending on the outside across the back portion from side to side and provided at opposite ends with oppositely disposed hooks which extend at the bend of the hooks through said back portion through open ended slits cut at each side of the back portion, the ends of the hooks lying along the inside face of said back portion for a short distance at each opposite end, said wire hasp also having a centrally disposed eye formed by looping the wire hasp, said eye extending through a central slit cut in the back portion, and a pack of notebook sheets bound together by means of a coiled binding member threaded through spaced binding openings in said sheets, said pack being adapted to be removably fastened to the cover member by inserting the ends of the hooks through the end convolutions of the coiled binding element, said eye being snapped between two adjacent coils when the pack of sheets has been centrally positioned with respect to the cover member, said eye being adapted to hold the pack in position and prevent lateral shifting of the pack on the hooks.

FRANK STANLEY SCHADE. 

